Norwegian industrialists Blitzkrieg Baby released their debut album, Porcus Norvegicus, two years ago,
and though they don't have another full album available yet, the Kids' World EP, which is the size of some bands'
LPs but is being sold as an EP due to the presence of previously-released compilation tracks, will do nicely. Rock and
metal influences are generally absent from the album, but a paranoid, despairing look at the world, both sonically and
lyrically, is most definitely present.

Kids' World consists of a slow, throbbing beat with a two-note synth groaning ominously under the cold
delivery of Kim Solve on the verses, vocals that give the sense that the listener is a captive audience to be subjected
to his violent topics, a mishmash of murder, rape, child soldiers, brainwashing, and similar subjects. Loop, on the
other hand, is quiet but pensive, an electronic tape wow with metallic spoken words, sounding like a recording -- and
the recording is of a person on the edge, a paranoid whose craziest fears might be real. As the voice ends, lazy synth
strains overlay a thudding, echoing drumbeat like sharks gliding through a deep ocean. Not all the vocals are good --
sometimes they just get annoying -- but Solve doesn't require vocals to generate a dark atmosphere; Those Who They
Could Not Fuck, They Killed, which has no vocals, is ample proof of that, and generated the atmosphere of a lonely,
horror-filled wait that might drag out a lifetime.

Solve's themes return again and again to damage done to children by violent aspects of society; Broken Child,
which has a loud, blasting drum overriding the otherwise very quiet vocals and background synths, and Children In
Uniform MMXIII, its opposite. This latter is a slowly ambling march to quiet drums and synths, but with a loud backdrop of
Solve shouting with the effect of an echoing megaphone. The quicker and more deliberate Your Happy Place is not, despite the title, any happier
a song than the rest of the album; on the contrary, it is harsh and menacing, with Solve's vocals taking on a
judgemental tone as the drums and synths count down inevitably towards doom.

In true industrial-music style, Kids' World is a very personal creation that requires the listener to take it or leave it, but doesn't try to
accommodate itself to anyone's tastes. While it falls flat on a few tracks (The Swine Supremacy, with a read-off
list of topics, was not my favorite), it generally creates the atmosphere intended, and that atmosphere is dark. Some
metal fans might consider skipping this if they would prefer a more traditional sound, but those who are willing to try
out some non-metal music that can make itself just as dark, this might be an interesting listen.